But that’s no slur on the brand, says distributor CB Norwood. In fact, the Jones have a “continuing love affair” with Kubota, as shown by their new arrival – a Kubota M135GX, delivered in April.
Matthew Jones, sharemilking on parents Laurie and Faye’s farm, points out that the M7500 was their first Kubota – “a good, basic reliable tractor, and easy to teach workers how to drive. With very little instruction they can be off.”
The MGX has three ranges of eight gears, changed at the push of a button. Matthew likes the MGX range’s bigger cab because he often has passengers. He also likes the cab layout, its height and overall comfort.
“You have better visibility being up higher and without the centre pillars. It’s also quieter than previous models and very manoeuvrable; that’s useful for putting hay bales in the shed. The cab monitor is clearly set out. It was easy to use, once I read the book; I set up the displays to show what I wanted – like speed of the PTO and kph. It can also show the rate of fuel consumption.”
So far the main job Matthew has used the new M135GX for is drilling and it was easy for the tractor to handle.
Next season it is lined up to do ploughing, topping, rotary hoeing and cutting green grass.
“We chop a load of grass from the run-off across the road and cart it to the cows. They can get one or two loads a day depending on what’s on the platform,” he says.
The engines in the latest Kubota’s are common rail, and have exhaust gas recirculation and a diesel particulate filter that work together to reduce harmful emissions.
All of the Jones’ latest tractors have loaders with self-levelling. “We have it on all the time and it’s useful for jobs like unloading pallets.”
The family also has a four-year-old Kubota MX125, which does the feeding out and carts bales when doing baleage. The new M135GX is approximately the same length and weight, so when they decided to get another it made sense to get the same type of tractor, but with the extra power and extra features.
Laurie and Matthew ordered the M135GX after seeing it in action at the Kubota Roadshow in Masterton. And having bought the tractor they went into a draw and won a new Kubota RTV900XT Camo utility vehicle.
